Joan Young leads McMillan’s litigation team in British Columbia. She is a highly skilled courtroom advocate with hundreds of trial days and appeals under her belt. She is widely acknowledged for exceptional experience in complex litigation and dispute resolution matters, class actions, and product liability. She has a proven track record advising and defending private sector clients on the impact of public and administrative law decisions in administrative proceedings, quasi-judicial tribunals, and judicial review in Supreme Court and Federal Court. Joan’s trial counsel experience includes defending the first BC constitutional/Charter of Rights class action (Auton v. British Columbia), and numerous leading public law liability cases on sexual misconduct (aB (K.L.) et al v. British Columbia et al; BG v. British Columbia). She is involved in multiple local, national and cross-border class actions. Past cases include award-winning cases, where Joan and the McMillan team represented the appellant before the Supreme Court of Canada in the leading case on certification standards in antitrust class actions ( Pioneer Corp. v. Godfrey ). Joan has specialized expertise in major public procurement projects and has provided oversight on over 20 high value design-build and P3 projects in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Yukon. Joan previously served as legal counsel to Office of the Premier of British Columbia and special advisor to the Attorney General. Her appointments to many boards and agencies include the Environmental Appeal Board, Victoria Airport Authority, the Museum of Vancouver, and includes her current role as a provincial appointee on the Board of Governors of Simon Fraser University.
